US-Iran truce tested by attacks on Bahrain, hit on Hormuz tanker

Arsalan Shahla and Sara Gharaibeh, Bloomberg News on Jun 27, 2026

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Bahrain said it had been targeted by Iranian drones and a ship in the Strait of Hormuz was struck on Saturday, adding fresh tension to the detente established in the wake of an interim U.S.-Iran peace deal signed earlier this month.

Bahrain’s foreign ministry said a number of Iranian drones targeted the country, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, early on Saturday morning, state-run BNA reported. Tehran has repeatedly targeted it and other Gulf states that host American military bases and thousands of troops since the U.S. and Israel launched the war in late February.

Meanwhile, a U.K. naval group on Saturday said a tanker was struck by an unidentified projectile in the Strait of Hormuz, though vessel-tracking data show that multiple ships continued to transit the waterway Saturday morning.

Iran claimed on Saturday that it had targeted U.S. sites in the Persian Gulf following U.S. strikes on its missile storage and radar installations on Friday. Those were in response to an Iranian drone hit on a container ship in Hormuz that sparked off the fresh round of attacks on Thursday. An unnamed U.S. official told CNN after the U.S. strikes that the action didn’t constitute a return to major combat operations for now.

The back-and-forth extended fighting around the waterway into a third day and risks slowing progress toward restoring shipping traffic in Hormuz to prewar levels.

The Joint Maritime Information Center on Saturday raised the security threat in Hormuz to “substantial” following the attacks on merchant vessels, and published a warning area for potential mines spanning much of the usual transit route. It also said that the Omani route recommended by Western navies had been expanded to allow ships to transit in both directions simultaneously.

Tehran and Washington have traded accusations that the other party violated the ceasefire. Iran’s foreign ministry in a statement on Saturday called the U.S. attack “an explicit violation of the first paragraph of the Memorandum of Understanding” that the two countries signed earlier this month. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed that it had struck U.S. sites in response, though it didn’t say which. U.S. Central Command didn’t respond to a request for comment on the Iranian claims.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance said that the U.S. had “honored” the deal.

“If they have disagreements about how the MOU is being applied, they can pick up the phone,” he said on X on Friday. “But violence will be met with violence.”

Even as the broader U.S.-Iran deal suffered a setback, there was some progress on a key sticking point — Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and fight with Tehran-backed Hezbollah, which has killed thousands. On Friday, the two countries and the U.S. signed an initial agreement aimed at paving the way for ending the conflict and ultimately reaching a peace settlement. By Saturday morning, however, Hezbollah’s chief Naim Qasem called the deal “null and void.”

Since signing a 60-day truce last week, U.S. President Donald Trump has said that he would resume military action against Iran if it violates the agreement’s terms, which provide for the flow of vessels through the vital strait and talks over its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

The two sides continue to clash over key provisions of the deal, including whether Iran will impose tolls or other monetary costs on ships seeking to sail through Hormuz. Oman told European officials that vessels may ultimately have to be charged some fees, Bloomberg reported earlier.

Trump’s decision to attack demonstrates that he’s willing to use military force to maintain freedom of navigation in the strait. But Iran’s strikes have shown that it’s seeking to maintain control of the waterway, which was largely shut after the war began on Feb. 28, becoming its greatest point of leverage with the U.S. as it roiled the global economy.

Tehran has repeatedly said that ships can’t pass Hormuz without its permission, and a handful of tankers turned around early on Thursday after reportedly getting warnings from the Iranian Navy.

Central Command said in its statement Friday that it would “continue to provide safe passage coordination and support to commercial vessels transiting the strait.”

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(With assistance from Hadriana Lowenkron, Skylar Woodhouse and Alex Longley.)